The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Ronald Reagan6 quotes
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. — Ronald Reagan · 1986Government is like a baby—it’s got an alimentary canal at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. — Ronald Reagan · 1965No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments' programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth. — Ronald Reagan · 1964One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law-abiding citizens should be one of the government's primary concerns. — Ronald Reagan · 1973Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: "We the People." "We the People" tell the government what to do; it doesn't tell us."We the People" are the driver; the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the People" tell the government what it is allowed to do."We the People" are free. — Ronald Reagan · 1989And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts. — Ronald Reagan · 1989Abraham Lincoln5 quotes
If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. — Abraham Lincoln · 1854Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. — Abraham Lincoln · 1848To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity, among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization. — Abraham Lincoln · 1859While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861This government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and…slavery is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State. — Abraham Lincoln · 1858James Madison4 quotes
It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. — James Madison · 1788Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. — James Madison · 1788A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained. — James Madison · 1788The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security. — James Madison · 1788Niccolo Machiavelli3 quotes
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live; that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin that his preservation. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Thomas Hobbes2 quotes
In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain... And the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. — Thomas Hobbes · 1651During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man. — Thomas Hobbes · 1651Adam Smith1 quote
There is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people. — Adam Smith · 1776Alexander Hamilton1 quote
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint. — Alexander Hamilton · 1787Alexander Pope1 quote
For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administered is best. — Alexander Pope · 1733Andrew Jackson1 quote
There are no necessary evils in the government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favor alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. — Andrew Jackson · 1832Barry Goldwater1 quote
The government strong enough to give you what you want is strong enough to take it all away. — Barry Goldwater · 1964Benjamin Franklin1 quote
All Property indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents & all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity & the Uses of it. — Benjamin Franklin · 1783Buckminster Fuller1 quote
Now there is one outstanding important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it. — Buckminster Fuller · 1969Cicero1 quote
For there is nothing that happens on earth that is more welcome to that supreme God who rules the whole universe than the institutions and congregations of men united by a sense of right, which are called states. — Cicero · 51 BCDaniel Webster1 quote
Whatever government is not a government of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it may. — Daniel Webster · 1835Edmund Burke1 quote
Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom. — Edmund Burke · 1790Friedrich Engels1 quote
The State is not "abolished", it withers away. — Friedrich Engels · 1878Gerald Ford1 quote
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. — Gerald Ford · 1960Harry Truman1 quote
Every segment of our population and every individual has a right to expect from our Government a fair deal. — Harry Truman · 1949Henry Clay1 quote
Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people. — Henry Clay · 1829John Adams1 quote
Fear is the foundation of most governments. — John Adams · 1776John Bright1 quote
England is the mother of parliaments. — John Bright · 1865John L. O'Sullivan1 quote
The best government is that which governs least. — John L. O'Sullivan · 1837John Maynard Keynes1 quote
I believe that in many cases the ideal size for the unit of control and organisation lies somewhere between the individual and the modern State. I suggest, therefore, that progress lies in the growth and the recognition of semi-autonomous bodies within the State. — John Maynard Keynes · 1926John Ruskin1 quote
The first duty of a State is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed, and educated, till it attain years of discretion. — John Ruskin · 1867John Stuart Mill1 quote
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. — John Stuart Mill · 1859Joseph Stalin1 quote
The State is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class, used to break the resistance of the adversaries of that class. — Joseph Stalin · 1924Joseph de Maistre1 quote
Every country has the government it deserves. — Joseph de Maistre · 1811Martha Gellhorn1 quote
Never believe governments, not any of them, not a word they say; keep an untrusting eye on all they do. — Martha Gellhorn · 1998Milton Friedman1 quote
Very few people spend other people's money as carefully as they spend their own. — Milton Friedman · 1975